Discover Engineering 2017

Group 4: Elyse Pollack, Cole Schroeder, Kody Stone, Dennapha Trakanchan, Berk Turer, Tilman Voorsinger

What is Electrical Engineering?

Electrical engineering is the field of engineering, dated back in the late 19th century, that deals with the application of electricity. Electrical engineers manufacture electrical equipment such as motors, wiring, radars, conductors, coils, batteries, switches, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors. Electrical engineers need an in-depth understanding of electricity, theory, mathematics and materials to design circuits and create new technologies that perform specific functions, and are safe, reliable and efficient.

First, we began by creating parallel and series circuits.

Parallel Circuit:  A Circuit in which the wire branches out into two or more paths that join up again

Series Circuit: A Circuit in which the current takes a single path and does not branch out

Combined Circuit: We combined both the series and parallel circuit to create a new circuit design. We used two switches, one controlling each LED light.

      

What is Biomedical Engineering?

Biomedical engineers use biology, medicine, and engineering to solve medical and health-related issues. Biomedical engineers also use electrical engineering, computer science, and mechanical engineering to create new technologies to improve human lives. Biomedical engineers have created artificial limbs and MRIs. Using biomedical engineering, we made a medicine monitoring circuit that dispenses medicine at specific times.

Medicine Delivery System Project

Description of Circuit and Design Process:

We made a monitoring circuit that dispenses aspirin for heart attack and stroke survivors at a certain time. This circuit will only dispense aspirin when zero risk factors or one risk factor are present. The risk factors include high blood pressure, bleeding, or asthma symptoms. The circuit will display a Green LED light when no risk factors are present and it is time to take the medicine. A Yellow LED will light up when one risk factor is present, but the medicine will still dispensed. A Red LED lights up when two risk factors present, and the medicine will not be dispensed. Also, an alarm goes off when all three risk factors being present, and the medicine will not be dispensed.

As a group we brainstormed designs, assigned roles to every group member, and defined the tasks that needed to be done using Asana. We then formed Logic drawings to help aid us on our design. One person worked on programming the Arduino, while two members worked on the alarm circuit and wrote a pin diagram for this process. We then collaborated as a group to help build the timer. One person then programmed the timer to specific settings on when the LEDs will flash and which LED will light up.

Scratch Simulation

The Scratch simulation shows which LED will light up when zero, one, two, or three risk factors are present.  In the picture below, 1 risk factor is present, so a yellow LED will flash. Our Scratch design helped our group to brainstorm design ideas.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/167127700/

Complete Circuit:

The complete circuit includes buttons attached to an arduino (which we programmed).  The arduino is attached to the logic circuit, which is attached to a timer with LED lights and an alarm.

Button Testing (didn't work): https://youtu.be/Wnug4xDUH-Q

Testing Logic Circuit: https://youtu.be/nKEPRERlsAg

Working Device: https://youtu.be/eLmgA2RMQ9c

Device in Progress:

Alarm:

After gathering the materials to make the alarm (resistors, capacitors, wires, and buzzer), we drew a pin diagram depicting where each material will be placed on the circuit board.  Then we constructed the alarm based on our pin diagram.  Our alarm worked on the first try when we connected wires from the circuit board to the buzzer.

Alarm testing video: https://youtu.be/4pz6ulxk3MQ 

Logic Circuit and Drawings:

We made drawings based on our equations, truth table, and the scratch drawing.  The logic circuit was created after programming the arduino.

Arduino program testing: https://youtu.be/XQU7mTyVV-s

Timer:

The timer was we made uses a 555 timer, a green LED light, a yellow LED light, a red LED light, resistors, and wires connecting each part. The lights on the timer light up during specific time increments and alerts the patient when the medicine will or will not be dispensed.

Links to Resources:

https://www.livescience.com/47571-electrical-engineering.html

http://physics.bu.edu/py106/notes/Circuits.html

http://bioeng.berkeley.edu/about-us/what-is-bioengineering

Kosky, Philip, Robert Balmer, William Keat, and George Wise. An Introduction to Engineering and Design. 4th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.